rollingthunder
Well-known member
Malaga Sat 28th Jan - Tue 1st Jan 2023…..
We took advantage of cheap RyanAir flights @ £42 return each and decided on a bit of late-Winter birding, nice food, a few beers and of course that all important Blue skies and hopefully some Sun to go with it.
We were not disappointed and although Malaga gets its rain from Nov to Feb it did not coincide with our visit. Temperatures were 13-15c with some light cloud from mid-morning to late-afternoon on a coupla days but always burning off after an hour or so. A moderate breeze on Monday afternoon from the West but that did not affect Malaga Town as it is relatively sheltered but it was a factor for my 5 hours over at the Parque Littoral on the Rio Guadalahorce nature reserve. Despite this I found plenty of shelter to bird the area so no complaints. We stopped at a nice hostel with shared w/c etc for £35 per night in the cheaper area in Old Town adjacent to the Arab fort.
Malaga offers some excellent birding at all times of the year and if you have access to a vehicle you can conceivably knock up 100 species any month. David Lindo aka The Urban Birder is a big fan of the place and his last visit, sponsored by Malaga Tourism, yielded 106 species although they did spread much further than my humble effort. The Guadalahorce valley has an excellent range of habitats as you follow it North past the White villages and the Barragem.
We landed at 0930 on the Saturday and after some breakfast by midday were mooching and tbh enjoying just sitting outside near the port in the Sun. On Sunday I walked the contour road up to the fort Mirador, some 650m above sea level before breakfast then out and around the Lighthouse in the afternoon. Monday I did the beaches adjacent to the Lighthouse and the lower fort gardens before breakfast then caught the bus over to the Guadalhorce reserve for 4 hours birding. Tuesday was a gentle mooch again around the gardens before lunch and flying back at 1730 landing at Brum 1930 local. We were blessed to arrive on a day when we are not being held to ransom by travel unions and were back home within an hour and a quarter with 2 train changes. A friend who travelled back from Prague yesterday (Friday) wasn’t so lucky it took him over 3 hours and 3 buses to make it back. To make matters worse he had left his jacket on a bar stool in a bar whilst visiting the loo (derrr) and got back to find his money, about 100 quid and his cards/wallet gone. Fortunately he had enough local currency to change at Brum airport to garner about £8.50 to make it back…..
Birdwise I clocked up about 56 species but it’s about quality not quantity and particularly the all-important ‘self found’ factor. I shall post general sightings etc in this offering and a separate post for my day out at the Guadalahorce. Being urban birding and out of migration season it consists of stuff flitting around and whatever is viewable at the beaches etc. I did not expect anything unusual overflying and although eyes peeled and bridge camera ready I saw nothing of note. The sound of Malaga above everything else is the Monk Parakeet! Although I suspect not for much longer. Their days appear numbered as they are classed as a pest and compete with native species and will be targeted for elimination by the Junta. They have already gone the way of the Dodo in Zaragoza and the estimated 3.5k in Malaga are due to be culled over 2-3 years by local authority snipers armed with air rifles. This will take place before the breeding season as they are pinned down at their chosen breeding site. I must say that they do add a touch of the exotic both in colour and distinct calls but I personally am more than happy for that to take place in its native Argentina and Brazil. Spain legally imported over 1M of these and related species and that is the problem - I feel sorry for the birds but perhaps the White-headed Ducks now breeding on the Guadalahorce would not be present if we had not culled the North American Ruddy…..
The control of Monk Parakeets reminds me of an episode of Fawlty Towers when they have an impending visit by a Hotel Inspector and Manuel has a pet Rat in a cage in his bedroom. Basil clocks it and is horrified but Manuel inisists that it is a ‘pedigree Hamster’ to which John Cleese responds ‘it’s a Rat Manuel. Don’t you have Rats in Spain or did Franco have them all shot?).
Yellow-legged Gull - as expected everywhere and in large rafts around the port. Mixed age groups and always worth looking at. I like to check the varying detail of primary blacking and wingtip mirrors etc on the adults. Just generally observing structural jizz against the LBB’s in the mixed flocks can be instructive.
Lesser Black-backed Gull - ‘graselli’ in the main but I did pick up some small parties of nominate ‘fuscus’ flying adjacent to the reserve.
Blackbird - are the local males slightly Greyer on the underparts?
Carrion Crow - a handful noted.
White Wagtail - the odd male coming into breeding plumage.
House Sparrow.
Collared Dove.
Sardinian Warbler - in suitable habitat wherever I went. Lots of birds calling and flitting with the odd obliging male.
Greenfinch.
Chiffchaff - again noted feeding in sunny spots where there was insect activity. If anybody knows how to identify a non-singing male in the Winter of the Iberian population I’m all ears.
Wood Pigeon.
Spotless Starling - despite singing males the birds were not sporting noticeable Blueish bases to the bills.
Great Tit - this and the other related species were encountered in the hillside scrub around the fort.
Coal Tit - the local race presumably.
Blue Tit.
Firecrest - excellent views of several feeding birds with lots more calling. I personally find the call more metallic but with the first birds on a trip I like to nail them with views and photos if possible.
Robin.
Chaffinch.
Treecreeper - a single very obliging bird, presumably Short-toed, I shall examine the images at some stage. No call heard.
Gannet - birds both offshore and close in. The 1w birds were checked for the recent Brown Booby but…..
Grey Heron.
Cormorant - quite a few but although a couple sported the breeding thigh patch none had ‘continental’ faces.
Black Redstart - several very obliging birds photographed.
Sandwich Tern - both an adult and a 1w fishing off the Lighthouse.
Lighthouse in Spanish are called El Faro. The one at Malaga is known as El Farola. This is feminine and is the only one on the Spanish mainland to be referred to in this gender. The only other one is on Tenerife.
Good Birding -
Laurie -
Attached:
1. Local subspecies of Scops Owl
2. Red Squirrels up at the Fort.
3. Obliging male Black Redstart.
4. Monk Parakeet.
5. Sardo.
We took advantage of cheap RyanAir flights @ £42 return each and decided on a bit of late-Winter birding, nice food, a few beers and of course that all important Blue skies and hopefully some Sun to go with it.
We were not disappointed and although Malaga gets its rain from Nov to Feb it did not coincide with our visit. Temperatures were 13-15c with some light cloud from mid-morning to late-afternoon on a coupla days but always burning off after an hour or so. A moderate breeze on Monday afternoon from the West but that did not affect Malaga Town as it is relatively sheltered but it was a factor for my 5 hours over at the Parque Littoral on the Rio Guadalahorce nature reserve. Despite this I found plenty of shelter to bird the area so no complaints. We stopped at a nice hostel with shared w/c etc for £35 per night in the cheaper area in Old Town adjacent to the Arab fort.
Malaga offers some excellent birding at all times of the year and if you have access to a vehicle you can conceivably knock up 100 species any month. David Lindo aka The Urban Birder is a big fan of the place and his last visit, sponsored by Malaga Tourism, yielded 106 species although they did spread much further than my humble effort. The Guadalahorce valley has an excellent range of habitats as you follow it North past the White villages and the Barragem.
We landed at 0930 on the Saturday and after some breakfast by midday were mooching and tbh enjoying just sitting outside near the port in the Sun. On Sunday I walked the contour road up to the fort Mirador, some 650m above sea level before breakfast then out and around the Lighthouse in the afternoon. Monday I did the beaches adjacent to the Lighthouse and the lower fort gardens before breakfast then caught the bus over to the Guadalhorce reserve for 4 hours birding. Tuesday was a gentle mooch again around the gardens before lunch and flying back at 1730 landing at Brum 1930 local. We were blessed to arrive on a day when we are not being held to ransom by travel unions and were back home within an hour and a quarter with 2 train changes. A friend who travelled back from Prague yesterday (Friday) wasn’t so lucky it took him over 3 hours and 3 buses to make it back. To make matters worse he had left his jacket on a bar stool in a bar whilst visiting the loo (derrr) and got back to find his money, about 100 quid and his cards/wallet gone. Fortunately he had enough local currency to change at Brum airport to garner about £8.50 to make it back…..
Birdwise I clocked up about 56 species but it’s about quality not quantity and particularly the all-important ‘self found’ factor. I shall post general sightings etc in this offering and a separate post for my day out at the Guadalahorce. Being urban birding and out of migration season it consists of stuff flitting around and whatever is viewable at the beaches etc. I did not expect anything unusual overflying and although eyes peeled and bridge camera ready I saw nothing of note. The sound of Malaga above everything else is the Monk Parakeet! Although I suspect not for much longer. Their days appear numbered as they are classed as a pest and compete with native species and will be targeted for elimination by the Junta. They have already gone the way of the Dodo in Zaragoza and the estimated 3.5k in Malaga are due to be culled over 2-3 years by local authority snipers armed with air rifles. This will take place before the breeding season as they are pinned down at their chosen breeding site. I must say that they do add a touch of the exotic both in colour and distinct calls but I personally am more than happy for that to take place in its native Argentina and Brazil. Spain legally imported over 1M of these and related species and that is the problem - I feel sorry for the birds but perhaps the White-headed Ducks now breeding on the Guadalahorce would not be present if we had not culled the North American Ruddy…..
The control of Monk Parakeets reminds me of an episode of Fawlty Towers when they have an impending visit by a Hotel Inspector and Manuel has a pet Rat in a cage in his bedroom. Basil clocks it and is horrified but Manuel inisists that it is a ‘pedigree Hamster’ to which John Cleese responds ‘it’s a Rat Manuel. Don’t you have Rats in Spain or did Franco have them all shot?).
Yellow-legged Gull - as expected everywhere and in large rafts around the port. Mixed age groups and always worth looking at. I like to check the varying detail of primary blacking and wingtip mirrors etc on the adults. Just generally observing structural jizz against the LBB’s in the mixed flocks can be instructive.
Lesser Black-backed Gull - ‘graselli’ in the main but I did pick up some small parties of nominate ‘fuscus’ flying adjacent to the reserve.
Blackbird - are the local males slightly Greyer on the underparts?
Carrion Crow - a handful noted.
White Wagtail - the odd male coming into breeding plumage.
House Sparrow.
Collared Dove.
Sardinian Warbler - in suitable habitat wherever I went. Lots of birds calling and flitting with the odd obliging male.
Greenfinch.
Chiffchaff - again noted feeding in sunny spots where there was insect activity. If anybody knows how to identify a non-singing male in the Winter of the Iberian population I’m all ears.
Wood Pigeon.
Spotless Starling - despite singing males the birds were not sporting noticeable Blueish bases to the bills.
Great Tit - this and the other related species were encountered in the hillside scrub around the fort.
Coal Tit - the local race presumably.
Blue Tit.
Firecrest - excellent views of several feeding birds with lots more calling. I personally find the call more metallic but with the first birds on a trip I like to nail them with views and photos if possible.
Robin.
Chaffinch.
Treecreeper - a single very obliging bird, presumably Short-toed, I shall examine the images at some stage. No call heard.
Gannet - birds both offshore and close in. The 1w birds were checked for the recent Brown Booby but…..
Grey Heron.
Cormorant - quite a few but although a couple sported the breeding thigh patch none had ‘continental’ faces.
Black Redstart - several very obliging birds photographed.
Sandwich Tern - both an adult and a 1w fishing off the Lighthouse.
Lighthouse in Spanish are called El Faro. The one at Malaga is known as El Farola. This is feminine and is the only one on the Spanish mainland to be referred to in this gender. The only other one is on Tenerife.
Good Birding -
Laurie -
Attached:
1. Local subspecies of Scops Owl
2. Red Squirrels up at the Fort.
3. Obliging male Black Redstart.
4. Monk Parakeet.
5. Sardo.
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